Breaking Bread: My dream flavor of ice cream is only in my dreams

Chocolate malt-flavored ice cream with copious amounts of salted caramel gooeyness and ribbons of marshmallow fluff: You wonít find this flavor in any grocery store near you.

It is my dream flavor. It exists only in my dreams.

I regularly search the freezer cases of grocery stores and ice-cream parlors wondering why no one else has concluded that my combination is everything one could possibly want in an ice cream.

Itís chocolate. The malt gives the chocolate a subtle background flavor that hints at an old-fashioned malted, giving it a nostalgia component. And the salted caramel balances out the sweetness of the marshmallow swirl.

The combination is vaguely reminiscent of a Milky Way candy bar but taken to a higher level.

Some days I think I might want salted pecans in the mix, but then I remember that, when licking ice cream from a cone, I donít like anything chunky nipping at my tongue.

What got me thinking about my dream flavor is the recent Velvet Ice Cream contest to create the flavor that the company will make for the 2017 Ohio State Fair. Each year, the Utica, Ohio, maker of ice cream produces a signature fair flavor. (The deadline to enter is today on Velvetís Facebook page.)

Apparently, no ice cream makerís research-and-development team has convinced its company that my flavor would sell (which, of course, makes me wonder about their processes).

I recently had a chance to chat with Jeni Britton Bauer, owner of Columbus, Ohio-based Jeniís Splendid Ice Creams, about her process for creating ice-cream flavors.